Musical holder for removable articles



March 28, 1950 B. H. KUYLER 2,501,822

MUSICAL HOLDER FOR REMOVABLE ARTICLES Filed 001;. 27 1945 INVENTOR.BENJAMIN H. Kunm ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MUSICAL HOLDER FORREMOVABLE ARTICLES Benjamin H. Kuyler, Bronx, N. Y.

Application October 27, 1945, Serial No. 624,987 Claims. (Cl. 84-95) Thepresent invention relates primarily to a child's toothbrush holder.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a toothbrush holderwhich is operable to emit a musical or other sound and which istherefore adapted tQ encourage or induce or remind a child to brush itsteeth. Further, and in accordance with another object of the presentinvention, the toothbrush holder presents an appearance which isparticularly pleasing to a child and which therefore, in this respect aswell, offers a certain amount of encouragement and inducement tothechild to brush its teeth.

The invention, the above mentioned objects thereof, and other objects,ancillary thereto, will be fully understood from the followingdescription considered in connection with the accompanying drawingswhich are to be considered as illustrative of the invention but not inlimitation thereof.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side perspective view of a toothbrush holder embodying thepresent invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional View On the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, on a larger scale, of part of themechanism with which the toothbrush cooperates; 7

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of part of the mechanism withinthe holder.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the toothbrush holder [0 isillustrated in Fig. 1 as presenting a fanciful representation of a babyelephant, but it will be understood that said holder may be in any oneof a large number of suitable forms attractive to a child. Said holdercomprises a hollow member l2 which may be mounted or otherwise suitablyformed of any suitable material, for example, plaster-of-paris, asuitable plastic, wood, metal, etc. The outer surface of outer member l2may be colored and also, if desired, may be provided with any suitablesurface ornamentation. In the particular embodiment shown herein, theears M of the figure are formed of fabric or other suitable sheetmaterial adhesively or otherwise secured in position in any suitableway. The figure member I2 is provided with a base or bottom closuremember I6.

The toothbrush is indicated at B and it will be noted that the figuremember I2 is provided with an opening l8 to receive the handle H of thetoothbrush. The figure I2 is provided in- 3| which is wound by a'key 32throughgears teriorly thereof with a longitudinal guide 20 for directingthe lower end of the handle to the proper position on a support 22 andin juxtaposition to the vane 24 of a musical device of any suitablemusic-box type. It will be noted that when the brush is mounted in theholder the lower end of the handle of the brush is in the path ofrotation of the vane 24 and thereby prevents the operation of themusical device. On the other hand whenthe brush is removed fromthe'holder the vane 24 is free to rotate so that the musical device canoperate or play. Accordingly', inducement and encouragement are offeredto a'child to remove the toothbrush from the holder for brushing itsteeth since the musical device cannot play'unless the toothbrush handleisv moved out of engagement with the rotary vane '24 of the musicaldevice.

"The musical or other sound-emitting device may be of any suitable typeand does not in itself form part of the present invention except inrelation to the toothbrush holder. It may be noted, however, that themusical device comprise a rotary drum 26 provided with a plurality ofradial prongs 28 which during the rotation of said drum engaged the endsof a set of musical vibratory members 30 which when vibratedproduce'various musical tones. Sounds, other than musical sounds,attractive to a child may be emitted; Drum 26 isrotated by a springmotor 34 and 36. The vane 24 is fixed to a rotary shaft 38 which isjournalled for rotation at its opposite ends in a bearing member 40, ofa bracket 42, and in the base plate 44 of the musical device. Thesupporting member 22 for the lower end of the toothbrush handle iscarried by said bracket 42. Shaft 38 is geared to and is driven byrotary drum 26. More specifically, as here shown, said shaft is providedwith a worm gear 46 which meshes with a driving worm wheel 48. The shaft50 on which worm wheel 48 is fixed is provided with a gear 52 which isgeared to the gear 54 carried by drum 26 through the intermediate speedincreasing gearing illustrated (Fig. 5). It will be noted that drum 26is geared to spring motor 30 by gears 56 and 58.

Thus, it is seen that the toothbrush holder of the present invention iswell adapted to accomplish the primary purposes and objects of thepresent invention. It will be understood, how ever, that the inventionmay be applied to a holder for a removable article other than atoothbrush and may be embodied otherwise than as here shown, and that inthe illustrated ema bodiment certain changes in the details ofconstruction and in the arrangement of parts may be made withoutdeparting from the underlying idea or principles of the invention withinthe scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. A device of the character described comprising a holder, a musicaldevice associated with said holder and having a member which controlsthe operation of said musical device, said holder having an opening forreceiving the handie of a removable toothbrush, and means provided insaid holder in association with said opening for guiding the handle to apredetermined position in relation to said member for interrupting theplaying of said device, said control member being released when thetoothbrush is removed from said position and engaged by said handle whenthe toothbrush is inserted in said holder.

2. A device of the character described comprising a holder for aremovable article, a musical device positioned in said holder and havinga rotary controlling member Which prevents the musical device fromplaying when said rotary member is prevented from rotating, meansproviding a support for the inner end of said removable article when thelatter is mounted in said holder, said support being positioned so thatwhen the removable article is supported thereby a part of said removablearticle Within the holder is in the path of said rotary controllingmember and thereby constitutes a stop for said rotary member to preventthe playing of said musical device, said support having guide meanstherein for guiding a part of said article to its position in said pathof said rotary controlling member.

3. A device of the character described comprising a holder in the formof a toy figure, a musical device associated with said holder and havinga rotary controlling member which prevents the playing of said musicaldevice unless said rotary member is free to rotate, said holder havingmeans for supporting a removable article in a predetermined positiontherein to prevent rotation or said rotary member whereby to prevent theplaying of the musical device unless said removable article is removedfrom said predetermined position.

4. A device of the character described comprising a container for aremovable article, said container having an opening for the insertionand removal of said article and a musical device associated with saidholder, said musical device having a movable member which controls theoperation of said musical device, said controlling member beingpositioned to be releasably engaged by said removable article when thlatter is mounted in a predetermined position in the container wherebyto prevent the playing of said musical device unless said removablearticle is removed from said position and thus released from saidcontrolling member, and means in said container for supporting saidarticle in said position.

5. A device of the character described comprising a container for aremovable article, said container having an opening for the insertionand removal of said article and a sound-emitting device associated Withsaid holder, said soundemitting device having a movable member whichcontrols the operation of said device, said controlling memberpositioned to be releasably engaged by said removable article when thelatter is mounted in a predetermined position in the container wherebyto prevent the operation of said sound-emitting device, unless saidremovable article is removed from said position and thus released fromsaid controlling member, and means in said container for supporting saidarticle in said position.

BENJAMIN H. KUYLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 257,112 Webber Apr. 25, 1882342,986 Ward June 1, 1886 1,734,770 Kayan Nov. 5, 1929 2,252,289 Kind etal Aug. 12, 1941 2,321,865 Darche June 8, 1943 2,435,105 Solomon Jan.27, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 128,424 Switzerland Dec. 1,1928 218,661 Switzerland Apr. 1, 1942

